JEEDAH AR
Imaginary sci-fi visualization of the city of Jeddah and an unconventional augmented reality experience at the 2018 Vision 2030 festival in Saudi Arabia.
Entrance portal
to sci-fi visualization
of the city Jeddah...
to sci-fi visualization
of the city Jeddah...
Imagine a magical door that would allow you to peer into an alternate future of the place where you are standing right now? As part of a major multimedia festival in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah, audiences had the chance to try just such a unique experience. With visual artists and colleagues from Brainz Studio, we created a portal to a fantastic reality. Enter !
SCI-FI VISION in AR
The aim of the project was to give the audience a glimpse of a different alternative future and a sci-fi version of Jeddah through smart devices (mobile phones, tablets) in a specific defined physical space of the city. We had extremely little time for the actual implementation of the project. Moreover, we had to physically visit the site to test everything, prepare technical documentation and document the site. My fellow developers and visual artists did a really great job.
LOCATION / AR SPOTS
We visited the physical location in Jeddah twice. With project manager and colleague Robin Pultera, on the first visit we tested the prototype app, documented the site in detail and I dusted off my memories of surveying. After all, the main backbone of the project was a few points marked graphically in space. These points, when loaded with a camera by a mobile device, allowed to call up a portal, enter it and move freely around the entire space of the peninsula promenade.
FUTURISTIC DESIGN
The main theme was the futuristic concept of the city. It was, of course, an exaggeration in the style of fantasy films and books. The visual concept and design of the whole experience was therefore stylized. It combined elements of science fiction, steampunk and futuristic visions of real buildings. The audience could see a glowing Neom-style city with fantastic machines and airships circling above. On the horizon of the Red Sea, for example, I designed the distinctive moon setting building "Al-Moon Gate'', referring to the history and traditional symbolism of the Arabian Peninsula. The complete environment painting and matte painting of the scene was handled by the great artist Nikolay Kravchenko, who painted the actual planned Jeddah Tower, which would become the tallest building in the world, in addition to the futuristic aerodrome and a series of high-rise buildings. Many assets, futuristic designs and environment reconstruction were then realized by 3D colleagues Michal Marek and Jakub Vaja, who, for example, perfectly rendered the ships.
Overall, it was purely a fantastic design that was meant to entertain the audience. It wasn't a concrete real concept and we didn't base it on any architectural study at all. The real planned Jeddah central 2030 is very different from visuals that project (for example, the construction of low-rise buildings, small streets, etc. which I personally find much more appealing). There were a lot of high rises in our AR project and it was an exaggeration.
REAL EXPERIENCE in JEDDAH
Our second visit to Jeddah took place during the launch of the festival itself, which featured dozens of unique multimedia installations. Our installation was lucky number 13.:) We made a short documentary here with fellow cameraman and DOP Pavel Raev.
You can see what the atmosphere and contrasts were like in this very historic city, which has been called the gateway to Mecca or the final resting place of the foremother Eve, in the Brainz Studio video below.
JEDDAH DOCUMENTARY
We made a short documentary here with fellow cameraman and DOP Pavel Raev. You can see what the atmosphere and contrasts were like in this very historic city, which has been called the gateway to Mecca or the final resting place of the foremother Eve.
Photography
Below you can also see some photos I took here :
